Murder

This is a story about a law professor and her inner circle of students, collegues, lovers and friends who each season find themselves involved in a murder and use their legal knowledge to cover up their crimes.

Sounds distasteful? It very much is. It's messy, ugly, upsetting - and totally brilliant!

The entire cast is phenomenal. Viola Davis in particular brings magic to every scene she's in, and it's impossible to imagine anyone else playing Professor Annalise Keating.

While the series pushes the limits for how many murders we're supposed to accept that our little group of anti-heroes gets involved in, the story is a dramatic rollercoaster that I couldn't get enough of. I binged every season. This series feels so fresh that you can't really compare it to any other show.

Annalise Keating (Viola Davis) is a sought-after law professor and a famous hard-charging defense attorney willing to push the envelope. She selects her students Wes Gibbins, Connor Walsh, Michaela Pratt, Asher Millstone, and Laurel Castillo as her interns to work on her cases. There is Annalise's husband Sam and her secret affair with police detective Nate Lahey. There are her associates Frank Delfino and Bonnie Winterbottom. The first season centered on the murder of student Lila Stangard and Rebecca Sutter who is the main suspect.

This is Shondaland. The flashforward structure of the first season is challenging but kept the show different and interesting. There is nothing better than Viola Davis. She shines but she also overpowers the younger cast. The biggest overshadowed problem is Alfred Enoch who is most known for a minor Harry Potter role. He's not alone in that problem. It doesn't help that the storytelling is non-stop twists and turns. The characters never get the stability needed to build chemistry. The second season centers on a different case and by the third season, I have to give up. All the effort is used to keep up with the twisty stories. Only Viola Davis is able to break through. It's just really tough to remember the situations for each character over the years.

I have no idea why it has taken me this long to write a review for this show since I have loved it since day 1. Meanwhile, How to Get Away With Murder has become my favorite show on television, and here's why: Even in a golden age of television, network TV has been lacking original content in the last few years. There are too many procedural dramas and too many superhero shows, so therefore I am glad to have a show like HTGAWM. Yes, it is partly a legal drama, but it is definitely so much more than than. IMO it is primarily a mystery and a thriller at the same time because every season starts with an intriguing flash-forward, showing us a very dramatic event that takes place in their mid-season finale. However, when most shows have flash-forwards they only feature one in the premiere and practically have no build-up to it, HTGAWM does the opposite, it features a flash-forward in every one of the first 8 episodes of a season and plays with our mind. By the time you have watched the mid-season finale itself, your mind will be blown. But why am I telling you this? Because I am trying to underline that this show has the most brilliant and shocking twists you could even imagine, and they have about 100 of those. They are executed with such brilliance and complexity that you will never get bored or annoyed by them. What is probably even better than the brilliant twists, however, is the masterful acting. Viola Davis nails every single scene she is, she portrays this deeply flawed character beautifully with so much depth. I cannot praise her enough, she deserves every single award that exists. That is not to say that the supporting cast is any less mesmerizing, they all bring their A-game consistently. They all deserve recognition. And one last thing: character development!!!! So so brilliant! The characters that you meet in the pilot change a lot as time passes and they all become very three-dimensional! Just go ahead and watch this show. I could say so much more, but just go enjoy the fun and crazy ride. You won't regret it, I promise!

I honestly think the other review was uncalled for. This is fantastic! The beginning is a little confusing and hard to figure out whats going on but honestly, that's what makes it so suspenseful. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. Most crime shows are all about justice, which is great but sometimes it's nice to see the opposite side of things. There's so many dynamic characters in this show, it adds interest. Viola Davis is amazing in this. She's such a strong actress and her acting is very believable and on point. What I will say is, some of the characters seem a bit awkward. Again, I think that's what makes it interesting. The awkward characters have a place and don't seem like a random actress throw into the mix. I find this show, sexy, interesting and very dramatic. It's the perfect mix! I say give it a watch, if you don't like it no harm, no foul.

At the time of writing, I have seen all of season one and the first episode of season 2.

I've seen other reviews on here that talk about how impossible it is to watch this show if you have any legal knowledge, and I would just like to add my two cents to this topic. I sympathize. I'm a lawyer, and have worked in criminal defence (once upon a time), and I, too, generally have a really hard time watching any legal dramas whatsoever. Television takes egregious liberties with the justice system, and shows that portray the practice of law are difficult to watch when they are wildly inaccurate, and it is frustrating to witness protagonists do things that you know are illegal or unethical. As annoying as this is, the tendency is understandable—even criminal law is only so compelling in real life. The assumption is that most viewers do not have legal training, and that nobody—lawyers included—will watch a show where competent, ethical practitioners stay at the office late looking up cases on Quicklaw, fiddling with binding machines, and trying not to smudge pad thai sauce on their prelim transcripts.

This show, however, is so ridiculous that it actually rose to the level of suspension of disbelief required for me, at least, to still enjoy it. It is basically a soap opera. Trying to subject it to human logic is a pointless exercise that will inevitably leave you discombobulated, shouting at the sky about injustice or whatever people do once they've discovered their whole life is a lie.

For instance, I would be hard pressed to conceive of a more profound conflict of interest than that contained in the season 1 episode 10 court scene if someone bet me $100 and a case of beer (I won't describe it in the interests of no spoilers--the blame-shifting thing). And that is just the tip of the iceberg. Every other thing that every character does in this show would get you summarily disbarred, fired, or charged with something.

At the end of the day however, that is not the point. This show seems to know exactly how over-the-top it is. But rather than trying to scale back the insanity in the name of realism, it revels in knocking it right into twelfth gear. Left and right, people are lying to each other or the court, sleeping around and committing felonies—sometimes at the same time—because why not? The degree of accuracy is so low that the mercury drops out the bottom of the thermometer and creates a rift in the space-time continuum. It fails so hard it wins. It is the Hearts equivalent of shooting the moon.

So get some popcorn and get comfy. Try to resist the analytical voice in your head that keeps screaming "No!" and just let it wash over you. Everything will be fine.